If you thought the only two people running for Iowa governor were Republican incumbent Terry Branstad and Democratic candidate Jack Hatch, you would be wrong. There’s a third party candidate — Jonathan Narcisse.
The Iowa Party is the third party ticket Narcisse is running for governor on.
“Iowa’s an amazing place — good, decent, honorable people,” Narcisse said during a campaign stop to the Osceola Sentinel Tribune’s office in late September. “I guarantee if you had a flat tire out there, somebody would stop and try to help you. But, unfortunately, we’ve had leadership that has goodness as weakness. As a result, we face a very serious challenge in this state.”
Narcisse was on a tour of southwest Iowa during that time, making stops in Greenfield, Creston and Osceola.
About Narcisse
Narcisse was born and raised in Iowa. He has two adopted girls and is the editor and publisher of a small group of community newspapers.
Narcisse served on the Des Moines School Board from 2007 to 2009 and ran for governor in 2010 as an independent. He tried to declare his candidacy as a Democrat early in the current gubernatorial race, but was disqualified after the Secretary of State’s Office determined some of his nominating petitions were invalid.
However, paperwork that was submitted in July made him a valid candidate through the Iowa Party.
One of the issues Narcisse hopes to bring attention to is the retention of Iowa’s young professionals and assisting them with the high cost of a college education.
His other points of emphasis on the trip were eliminating taxes that discouraged building in the cities and encouraged urban sprawl across rural Iowa, state regulation and legalization of medical and recreational marijuana and encouraging personal responsibility for those in power positions and everyday Iowans.
Stagnation
Narcisse said, a little more than 20 years ago, Iowans woke up to Terry Branstad as governor and Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley as senators representing the state in Washington, D.C. Right now, those same people, as well as other local politicians, are still in office.
“We have stagnation issues, growth issues, challenges facing education,” Narcisse said. “Now, we have a strong foundation, but even then we see much of urban Iowa decaying, and a lot of areas in rural Iowa are dying. So, we need solutions to these challenges.”
Iowa Party
Narcisse said a new solution could be found through the Iowa Party — a new state-based political party. He said the party could focus and concentrate resources on local elections and where money is spent.
“We call it the Iowa Party. It could just as easily be called the accountability and governance party or the Iowa watchdog party,” he said.
Even Narcisse’s cards that he hands out to people state, “End the Branstad era. Restore Iowa to her people.”
Narcisse said the Iowa Party won’t be like the Libertarian Party during November elections. Change will start at the county level.
“Our goal is to challenge incumbents during the primary seasons, as Republicans and as Democrats,” he said. “That’s why we encourage people who support the Iowa Party to be more supportive in the form of membership, and then to stay Republicans and Democrats, participate in those caucuses. And, most important, enter those primaries. Now, even the most powerful legislators are vulnerable come primary season.”
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Jake Waddingham, Creston News Advertiser associate editor, contributed to this story.